Nicole Holden
Nicole Holden is a fictional character in the Power Rangers franchise, played by actor Kaley Cucco. Nicole is best remembered as the original pink ranger from the first entry of the franchise, Power Ranger: Thunderstorm, as well as the leader of the original team of Power Rangers. He later becomes the second Gold Ranger in Power Rangers Time Force. She was the first tomboy pink ranger and the older sister of Andy Holden. Nicole and fellow ranger Carmen Rodirguez were the original best friends of Susie Gold. Character History Nicole is a female martial artist from the fictional town of Riverside, California. In the beginning of'' Power Rangers: Thunderstorm'', she is selected by Telexa and Gamma 5, along with his closest friends Max Collins, Drew Hale, Rico Lopez, and Carmen Rodriguez, as the five "teenagers with attitude" to become the original Power Rangers and defend Earth from the forces of the evil Vita. When Telexa first confronts the teens to give them their powers, Nicole is the only one who initially believes him. Nicole becomes the Pink Thunderstorm Power Ranger, is given the Power Coin of the Tyrannosaurus "Dinozord" (a type of Transformer-esque robot), obtains the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord, and is made the team leader. She leads the Rangers into many successful battles against Vita's monsters, establishing a rivalry with Vita's number one henchman Goldona. At first glance, Nicole appears to be the stereotypical pink-wearing blonde, primarily interested in sports—particularly martial arts. Beneath the surface, however, she is big-hearted, outgoing, friendly, and always willing to help someone out when it is needed—such as when he takes Drew under her wing and teaches him martial arts to boost his confidence and teach him self-defense. Aside from martial arts, Nicole is an accomplished athlete, weight trainer and certified scuba diving instructor. When Susie Gold, an 13-year-old cheerleader is introduced, he becomes competitive rivals with Nicole, matching him in a martial arts competition. Vita then manipulates the 13-year-old, turning her into the evil Aqua-Blue Ranger, and sends him into battle. She later captures Nicole, steals his Thunder Morpher and imprisons him in Vita's Dark Dimension where he would have to fight Goldar to retrieve his Morpher. The Green Ranger eventually arrives at the scene with orders to destroy Nicole, however Drew, Rico, and Gamma manage to repair the damage Susie did to the Command Center, in time to find Nicole and retrieve him seconds before she is killed by Susie. Later, Nicole squares off with Susie on Earth and ultimately defeats him in combat when she hurls his energized Power Sword at the Aqua-Blue Ranger, disarming her, and then uses her Blade Blaster to destroy the Sword of Darkness that Vita had given to Susie, due to the sword's ability to maintain her evil spell on her. Nicole then convinces Susie to join the team and use his powers against Vita. Later, Vita crafts a Aqua-Blue Candle out of special wax that had been enchanted with Susie's touch when she was evil. Once lit, the candle continues to burn until it is gone, and when it is, so too would Susie's powers. Because Susie's proximity to the candle accelerates the candle's melting process, Susie is captured and placed in its proximity by Goldona. However, she eventually escapes and Nicole is left to retrieve the candle. Nicole does well in his fight with Goldona, but is recalled into the battle with Vita's Cyclops monster in order to save Susie's life. Following the failure of destroying the Aqua-Blue Candle, Susie entrusts Nicole with her Power Coin to prevent them falling into Vita's hands again, allowing her access to the Aqua-Blue Ranger's powers. This includes the PteroWand, which also allows him to call the Pterozord to aid the Rangers, even while Susie controls the Megazord. One of Nicole's most cunning moments is the gambit he plays against Goldona, who kidnaps the parents of Riverside High and Winwood Junior High's students, then ransoms them for the Ranger's five Power Coins. Nicole would later reveal that though she gave up his Tyrannosaurus Power Coin to Goldona, she kept the Ptero Thunder Coin. With it, Susie eventually regains her Aqua-Blue Ranger powers, retrieves the other Ranger's Power Coins and helps the team save their captive parents. When Lady Moticia superior strength to Vita's Putties, but it is Nicole who discovers their weak spot. In order to compete with their new enemy's more powerful monsters, the Dinozords are upgraded into the mythical Thunderzords; Nicole's being the Red Dragon Thunderzord, which can transform into a humanoid form. As with the Tyrannosaurus, the Pink Dragon is capable of defeating a monster on its own, separate from the Megazord formation.[[|5]] Eventually, 14-year-old Susie loses her Aqua-Blue Ranger powers for good, and Nicole suffers from immense guilt because of it. Choosing to capitalize on Nicole's vulnerability, Morticia creates candles for Max, Drew, Rico and Carmen that would remove their links to the Morphing Grid, just as Vita did to Susie. Nicole, with the help of Telexa's confidence in her, manages to save her friends and prevent them from losing their powers. Following the victory, Nicole wins a martial arts trophy and dedicates it to Susie, who soon after returns as the White Ranger and is named the new leader of the team by Telexa. Susie still heavily relied on Nicole, as shown were she asks for Nicole's help because she is struggling to defeat Nimrod the Scarlett Sentinel, Nicole then comes to Susie's aid and together with the other Rangers they defeat the Nimrod. Some time later, Nicole, Rico and Max are chosen to act as ambassadors at a peace conference in Switzerland (after the actors playing the characters left the show over contract disputes), and are forced to leave the team. Telexa chooses Jasmine to replace Nicole as the Pink Ranger. ''Power Rangers Zeo'' Nicole returns in Power Rangers Time Force, temporarily taking over the powers of the Gold Ranger from Trina of Triforia when Trina is injured in a fight with Varox bounty hunters. Upon her return to the team he is also made second-in-command. Her return is greatly welcomed by his old friends sixteen-year-old Susie and eighteen-year-old Drew, and she quickly makes new friends out of the newer Rangers Trey Wilkes, Claire Mitchell and Hunter Dean. However, Jasmine soon becomes disturbed by her teammates' love for Nicole, as she feels she is being replaced by the Ranger she had replaced. She was even sore when Trey and Susie started sparring with Nicole. After risking her life to prove himself to be worthy despite Nicole's popularity, Jasmine eventually accepts Nicole as a friend and adopts the same jovial relationship with Nicole that Jasmine has with everyone else. She and Nicole compromise to spar with Try and Susie on the weekends and Weekdays. When Susie is kidnapped by Prince Gasket, Susie would step up as leader of the team once again until they were able to save Ssuie and bring her back, Susie's disappearence worried both Nicole and Claire. Nicole is also chosen by Hunter to become the guardian of Auric the Conqueror for a time. During Time Force, Susie shows a deep dependence on Nicole's advice when it comes to leadership decisions. Nicole returns the Gold Ranger powers to Trina in the final episode of Time Force when it is discovered that she cannot handle the powers much longer, as they are draining away - along with her own life force - due to the Gold Ranger powers not being intended for human physiology. However, there are no apparent long-term effects, and Nicole appears perfectly healthy after the powers are transferred back to Trina ''Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie'' Nicole and Carmen both return in Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie. ''They both plan to see the rangers graduate from Riverside High and celebrate Susie's upcoming birthday. They are first seen scuba diving together, but are then kidnapped by the villainess Hexica and are briefly brainwashed to fight against the Turbo Rangers. It appears that the evil influence enhanced his own negative aspects, as at one point she taunts Susie with "Now '''I'm' the one with the muscles and the power!". After being restored to normal by Lerigot, she and Carmen help Lerigot and his family escape while their rangers battle evil. ''Power Rangers Megaforce'' Nicole returns in Power Rangers Megaforce for her upcoming wedding to another former ranger. Her old friends also visit for the big event, including her former teammate, Drew Hale, who is now a mentor to the Megaforce rangers. One of them was Drew's niece, Kelly. Nicole tells Drew that Susie got a letter from him while she was trapped in the future with her friends months after her graduation. Drew explains to Nicole that he never meant to hurt Susie, but the letter and her friends help her get on with her life.